“We will restrict family reunification through strict checks,” Nehammer announced to the APA on Sunday. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner and Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) have been instructed to “effectively implement the measures in the next few days”.
Specifically, a decree from the Ministry of the Interior is to be tightened. DNA tests should be increasingly used to provide absolutely reliable proof of relatives. “Even if there is the slightest doubt, DNA tests must be carried out so that we can be absolutely sure that there is no abuse here,” emphasized Nehammer. In addition, specially trained document examiners will be deployed more intensively. In addition, increased security checks of family members by the security authorities are planned.
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Family reunification was recently discussed primarily by the red-pink Vienna city government, which in this context called for the introduction of a residence requirement for those entitled to asylum. Vienna is particularly burdened because many people entitled to asylum from other federal states are moving to the capital. At the end of April, the Vienna City Councilor for Education and Deputy Mayor Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS) reported that last month alone, 350 children had been admitted to Vienna’s schools through family reunification.
NEOS: “Lack of legal knowledge”
Nevertheless, the NEOS were anything but impressed by Nehammer’s announcement. The proposal shows “a lack of legal knowledge on the part of the Chancellor,” said their asylum and migration spokeswoman Stephanie Krisper in a press release. Otherwise, Nehammer would have to know that DNA tests for family reunification are already legally possible and are already being used in practice. Instead of “populist election campaign noise,” a constructive approach is needed, said Krisper.
The Freedom Party also saw the proposal as less credible – albeit for different reasons. It cannot be denied that the ÖVP in particular stands for “unbridled illegal migration,” responded security spokesman Hannes Amesbauer. When Nehammer and Interior Minister Karner now speak out in favor of a stricter asylum system with deportations and a brake on family reunification, “they are once again trying to keep the population from being insulted.”
